Former THQ President details about working conditions and unrealistic expectations for Metro: Last Light’s development in Ukraine

Jason Rubin, the former president of the now defunct THQ put up his version of the problems that Ukrainian based game developer 4A Games faced during the time of development for ‘Metro: Last Light’. NWX7MFAYS2C4

It was pointed out that THQ’s original producers had an unrealistic expectation of crunching multiplayer and co-op gameplay within the same deadline and budget planned for a single player game. The team had no choice but to develop the sequel of Metro 2033 in a condition equivalent of a school cafeteria rather than one would expect from a game development studio.

Developers also had more problems where they had no choice but to have Dev kits and high end PCs to be smuggled into Ukraine in backpacks to prevent custom officials from stealing it.

If you thought it couldn’t get any worse, the team also had to face frequent power outages with a barely working heating setup. They had no choice but to work in below-freezing conditions and said that 4A’s success is no different than that of Jamaicans’ bobsledding team finishing ahead of the U.S. in ’94 Olympics.

Such conditions of work is something one wouldn’t usually hear from a game studio, especially one which made a game called ‘Metro: 2033″ and then moving on to make a sequel of that game franchise.

He said in a story viz. submitted to GamesIndustry International:

Let’s be honest: 4A was never playing on a level field. The budget of Last Light is less than some of its competitors spend on cut scenes, a mere 10 percent of the budget of its biggest competitors.

He concluded by saying the following:

It is a true testament to the raw skill and potential of the team. Ultimately, it is a desire for the recognition of 4A’s talent that drove me to write this. You may know that I have a history of talking about developer recognition. These guys need recognition.

If 4A had been given a more competitive budget, in a saner environment, hadn’t wasted a year-plus chasing the irrational requirement of THQ’s original producers to fit multiplayer and co-op into the same deadline and budget(!), hadn’t had to deal with the transition to a new publisher in the crucial few months before final, what could 4A have created?